Friday, March 20, 2009

My friend John is back in town this week from Spokane, and the ONE thing we wanted to do was go snowboarding, and make an effort to get some good footage for a video. Well, the day we went up, Stevens Pass had been dumped on 3 days prior to us going up, totalling an amazing 6 FEET OF SNOW! It was total powder from the day we started [8:45am] to about 4pm which is when we left. During out time there though was REDICULOUS. I thought I would never say it but there was actually TOO MUCH snow that morning. Oh wait, let me back up real quick [cue rewind sound]..

On our way up to the mountain, the roads were covered with snow, slush, rain and debris, and it was still snowing as we were driving. From the back seat, I was watching us pass up trees and cars going about an average of 60mph I'd say. I was thinking in my head "Joe, slow down, we're gonna slide off the road, and I'm not in the mood to get stuck out here on the mountain when there's inches of snow waiting for us to touch.." As I'm testing out my camera to see how it'll look on the mountain I hear "OH SHIT" and look up and notice the Rodeo sliding over the other side of the road, and at the same time look at Joe trying to turn the wheel to regain control of the SUV but it was too late; we were perpendicular with the road heading for a ditch in the road. John in the front passenger seat either screamed or yeld, but I think I tuned it out cause I was too busy thinking "Fuck fuck fuck fuck.." The SUV finally came to a stop after 4 seconds of sliding into a ditch. We all looked at eachother, took one sigh of relief, then grabbed our jackets and began digging the car out. Eventually we got it out and made our way up the mountain. Moral: Drive Slow Homie (c) T.I.

Finally made it up to Stevens Pass, bought a Season Pass for $79 [what a steal! now I really gotta go], strapped in, and headed to the lifts. One thing that sucked: My board wasn't waxed recently so with the amount of powder on the ground, me and my board weren't getting anywhere very fast. Long story short, I fixed my stance which helped me pick up some speed and stay above the powder. Unfortunately I did get stuck in snow that went up to my chest and spent a good 15 minutes digging my board and myself out of that shit. SERIOUSLY a workout.

By the end of the day the snow stopped falling, and we were able to get some decent footage. The park was closed though so we had to make use of what the mountain and mother nature laid in front of us. After my first try at video editing, I came up with this..

It was fun taping and editing this thing so I'm definitely gonna get hooked on this video editing thing. I only have 3 songs on my computer at the moment and Kid Cudi was the only good choice I had, and I think they worked well together. The transitions in the video with the music.. I actually edited the video first, plugged the music in, did a little moving of the music and sounds, and bam; my first vid. More sessions to come, hopefully some better footage.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Marvel Studios has set some new release dates for the upcoming super heroes that eventually join together to make the Avengers. For those of you who don't know [how dare you for not knowing!], during both Iron Man and The Hulk, characters were approached at the end of both movies by someone from S.H.I.E.L.D., leading many to believe the beginning of one of the greatest Marvel teams ever, The Avengers. With that said here are the release dates as of now.

Although the dates aren't EXACTLY set, it's better than nothing. Now that I have that done, it's time for me to stop dancing in excitement and do what I used to do; sit in my room surrounded by my collection of comics and cards and feel powerful. WHO WANTS TO TRADE?!

Monday, March 9, 2009

So I've been working retail for 8 months now for (1)to make some dough to get by living in the city until I find a real job, and (2)to see what all the fuss is about when it comes to working retail. Seeing that I'm still working there past 6 months, I think I have an idea of what the retail business is about. I'm not sure about other retail stores, but our store is, in a sense, "competitive" amongst other stores under the same name. Our manager is always feeding us numbers telling us "We're #-- in the district and we need to be #1 cause that's what we used to be.. blah blah" kinda stuff. We are updated during each segment [a segment is 2hrs or work ie. 2-4p] on how we are doing on our sales, customer ratio to sales, and more numbers to boost us to work harder. Anyways, bottom line, maybe its just this store, but compared to other stores I've walked through recently, we work suprisingly hard.

Before I thought of the idea of working retail, I went to my friends who have worked retail to see what I would get myself into and it came down to these few Cons:- Customers can be really rude- Pay isn't that good- Hours can suck- On-calls aren't cool

So I STILL tried out to retail job, and found these things to be true, BUT those things were the least of my problem.1) Customers can be really rude.. I'd say I'm a people person, meaning I can deal with rude customers. I'll say my remarks after they leave, but other than that I'll just move on with my life.2) Pay isn't good.. DUH. its retail. I LITERALLY stop myself throughout the day from working real hard to make customers happy, work hard to keep numbers up, and keep the store up to par [unless I'm closing], and remind myself "calm down. you are making barely over minimum wage. you are BARELY getting by."3) Hours can suck.. Yeah. They say they give us hours depending on the kind of numbers we are getting during our shift but I'm going to ahead and call "B.S." I mean I'm sure there's a little part that depends on it, but when it comes down to it, I'm pretty sure whomever schedules us doesn't sit down, look at our individual numbers and divvy up our hours accordingly. Or else I'd be getting more hours.4) On-calls suck.. I can't plan ahead on days when I have an on-call but I'm sure nurses and doctors have that same problem so its not really a big deal.

The one thing that really gets me the most.Coworkers.You don't get the pick of the pod, or the sharpest tool in the shed, but you do get the good with the bad. I work along with some cool cats, but there are those that just grind my gears [Peter Griffin (c)].

We have CSL's which are out Sales Leads who give us updates on our numbers over our walkies and walk the floor to make sure everything is going OK. One thing that gets me though is that some CSL's find it hard to pick something up, and fold it, rather than throw it on my table and expect me to fold it. Yeah, its my job, but I'm 99% sure that it's part of their job to do something other than walk around and twiddle your damn thumbs. Don't tell me our numbers are down and work harder.. I'll work harder when you do your job.

Second is my other sales associates. Typically complaining about customers being rude to them, sharing info I don't really wanna hear over the walkie.. blah blah. It doesn't really bother me, but when they decide to not work, I am free to rant. I can recall one time I was working, about 5 minutes to closing, and I look over to see what my coworker is doing, and they're writing something down on a piece of paper. I don't think anything of it at the time. 3 minutes to closing [yes, when it comes to closing, every minute is noted], they're still doing the same thing.. 1 minute to go, I look over, he/she takes that small piece of paper, crumples it up, throws it away and says over the walkie "Can I clock out now?".. WTF. are you serious?! Im cleaning up the store and your over there doodling penises or whatever you fancy?! Cmon now. Oh, also when I come in to take over someone's section cause it's time for them to go home, and they have a pile of clothes that STILL need to be folded. It's not that hard to do your job and get it done before you have to bounce out.

Overall.. Work retail if you have time for a part-time job, and I mean PART-TIME. A plus having this part time? the extra % off you get on the goods they sell. BUT! when you take the bad, you get some good. So of course there are times when things are good at work, but if I go on about those, it would defeat the purpose of my rant.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Sydney Morning Herald reported that we came THIS* close to putting a dent in our life. A large asteroid about 30-50m wide, came about 7 times closer than the moon! But if you think about it, getting hit with an asteroid would be kinda cool. Something a little more exciting than Chris Brown and Rihanna getting married, or Blackberry finally getting a cool Apps store TONIGHT at 10PM ET. After watching a video on an asteroid colliding with the Earth, kinda seems cool. Maybe it was just the Pink Floyd music that made it so mesmerizing..

About Me

I am in the process of fulfilling my goals in life, whether it be with school, work, career, health, or adventure. I strive for good health and admire great art, love speed and competition, and always up for trying new things.